The invention is a method for rapidly and accurately estimating the materials needed to build various structures. These structures include post frame buildings (or “pole barns”) and stud frame buildings (or “garages), also referred to together herein as wood frame buildings.
The invention has been reduced to practice in a computer program which will be described below. The invention is an automated materials estimating system that uses a Graphical User Interface (GUI) programming language as the intermediary between the main system engine and relational database.
A relational database stores all product and estimate information. Due to the considerable size and complexity of the data being stored, a relational database was chosen as the database platform for the following reasons:                Ability to store and retrieve information quickly        Create relationships between related sets of data        Ability to cascade primary key information from one table to another        Ability to cascade the deletion of associated records        Use the native database system for database functions        
The main system engine contains the windows, programming language, as well as the interface for the finished reports, drawings, plans, and lists. In this case, Microsoft® Excel was chosen as the container for the main system engine for the following reasons:                Provided a platform for creating professional reports        Drawing capability        Flexibility in reporting        Utilization of existing functions        Common availability by client base        Provides interface for creating/modifying Visual Basic for Application® programming language.        
Although other programming languages could be used such as Visual Basic®, Visual C++®, or VB.Net®, Visual Basic for Application® was chosen for the following reasons:                Ability to interface with both the main system engine, Microsoft® Excel and the relational database container, Microsoft® Access        Ability to create a custom Microsoft® Windows based system.        Faster design time through the use of predefined functions and features        